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Gardening Advice

ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
in Not Sports Related
Oh this is going to be a fun thread... Not just because of the usual comments I'll no doubt get but also because I'm quite new when it comes to the subject.

Basically my Garden is weed infested and has just very small patches of grass, my plan over the coming weeks was to spray the whole area with Roundup meaning that the weeds will die yet also ensuring that the grass dies too... Once this has been done I was then going to lay grass seed and re-grow the lawn from scratch.

As I say I'm quite new to gardening, don't really have the money for countless tools so was wondering if anyone can offer advice with the best way / the best order of getting everything done?
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Comments

  • Fortune 82nd MinuteFortune 82nd Minute
    My wife is a keen gardener. Best advice she had was keep the bush well trimmed.
  • ricky_ottoricky_otto
    Seriously don't use seed if your doing an entire lawn, turf is the way to go. See is a pain the the arse - and in my experience on any good for patches.

    If you're really lazy and it's a small lawn anyway - what about AstroTurf - not a fan myself but one of my neighbours has it and it looks pretty good - and saves getting the flymo out.
  • TELTEL
    If you use round up you will have to leave the ground for at least 6-8 weeks. Then rake off all the dead stuff. Then get at least 100mm of good quality top soil. The really hard part is finding a really good quality seed. Ive just used a Tall Fescue variety which in this unpredictable environment has done really well. The other option is to hire a rotavator then filter out the crap, roll it and top soil it.
  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    Yeah it is a small lawn... about 25 sqm

    I originally thought of AstroTurf as see there are a lot of artificial ones on the market but changed my mind as want to put the effort out there and almost take up the hobby (I'm too boring at the moment as you mentioned the other day lol!)

    Why is seed a pain in the arse?
  • RedvalleyeastRedvalleyeast
    You will need to top dress the old lawn with decent topsoil before seeding. Sounds like the old lawn will be very compacted so you will have to rotorvate and aerate before laying the new topsoil. You can hire a rotorvater but failing that,at least aerate the old soil. Invest in a decent fork and soil rake. Good luck :)
  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    TEL said:

    If you use round up you will have to leave the ground for at least 6-8 weeks. Then rake off all the dead stuff. Then get at least 100mm of good quality top soil. The really hard part is finding a really good quality seed. Ive just used a Tall Fescue variety which in this unpredictable environment has done really well. The other option is to hire a rotavator then filter out the crap, roll it and top soil it.

    Have been looking around this morning and just been getting confused which is why I decided to come on here and ask... Don't really want to hire a rotavator... if I was to get at least 100mm of good top soil do I just rake it into the soil before seeding?
  • ricky_ottoricky_otto
    Don't forget to wear your t-shirt when doing it.
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  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    Redvalleyeast said:

    You will need to top dress the old lawn with decent topsoil before seeding. Sounds like the old lawn will be very compacted so you will have to rotorvate and aerate before laying the new topsoil. You can hire a rotorvater but failing that,at least aerate the old soil. Invest in a decent fork and soil rake. Good luck :)

    Yup this is where my ignorance shows through... Do you mean by aerating the soil?

    I thought you'd just put a few random letters together when you first wrote it
  • DaveMehmetDaveMehmet
    I'll give you some gardening advice. If you're thinking about cutting back your trees during your week off, pay someone else to do it!

  • Fortune 82nd MinuteFortune 82nd Minute
    ForeverAddickted said:

    Took seven minutes... God people are getting old and slow on this Forum!!

    Be fair - the old ones are the best!
  • charltonkestoncharltonkeston

    Try and get the top soil in flat as possible, walk it in and rake off the high spots. And repeat until its as good as you can get. then fluff up the top 3/4 -1 inch and lay your turf green side up or seed it as per TEL.
    Instant garden make over.

    The down side, its knackering. I prepped my garden over last autumn/ winter. I killed the grass and weeds cleared it and laid 7 tons of topsoil to level the garden out. 2 weeks ago I added 2 more tons of soil to take out the settlement and bit of fresh across the all of it and then took a day off work to lay the turf. It looks great now, well worth the effort.
    Good time of the year to do this, you'll have a work out doing this job. You wont want to do this job when it warms up.


  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    Cheers for the advice Keston...

    Do you have any topsoil that you can suggest I go and get or is the B&Q / Wickes stuff good enough for the job?

    For a garden thats around 25 sqm how many bags would I ideally need?
  • charltonkestoncharltonkeston
    ForeverAddickted said:

    Cheers for the advice Keston...

    Do you have any topsoil that you can suggest I go and get or is the B&Q / Wickes stuff good enough for the job?

    For a garden thats around 25 sqm how many bags would I ideally need?

    I used Stuarts on North Cray rd. B&Q / Wicks etc. are certainly ok but you will pay more for. Stuart's good stuff is £65/ 750kg, so a good saving there. Unless you want something resembling Lords this will be perfectly ok. As to how much you need is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question. It will depend on how much you need to replace and level with. If you Google topsoil a lot of the suppliers will have calculators on their website. Get some rough dimensions, (H x W x D), and input them. Remember the soil compacts somewhat so you will need a bit more that you might think.
  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    I guess depth will come into the question because of how much I'll need to level the ground?
  • BaldybonceBaldybonce
    If you want countless tools for your garden, ask on a millwall forum.
  • charltonkestoncharltonkeston
    ForeverAddickted said:

    I guess depth will come into the question because of how much I'll need to level the ground?

    Yes. Get a line strung (this a piece of string) across your garden, side to side, up and down and across the diagonals. Doing this will show you the highs and lows, where to add and where to remove.
  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    Excellent so what I'm looking at is...

    (1) Put down the weed killer to destroy everything and then rake it all off.
    (2) Put down the topsoil to level the surface (raking it in etc.)
    (3) Add the grass seed and continue etc.
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  • GoldyboysGoldyboys
    Get Roland in. He's just about crap at everything else, but at least we got a half decent pitch.
  • TELTEL
    ForeverAddickted said:

    TEL said:

    If you use round up you will have to leave the ground for at least 6-8 weeks. Then rake off all the dead stuff. Then get at least 100mm of good quality top soil. The really hard part is finding a really good quality seed. Ive just used a Tall Fescue variety which in this unpredictable environment has done really well. The other option is to hire a rotavator then filter out the crap, roll it and top soil it.

    Have been looking around this morning and just been getting confused which is why I decided to come on here and ask... Don't really want to hire a rotavator... if I was to get at least 100mm of good top soil do I just rake it into the soil before seeding?
    Prepare the existing area get it as flat as possible and then put down your top soil. Seriously research the seed as most of the stuff you will buy over the counter at Garden centres is only good for patching. When you sow the seeds make sure the soil is damp but not wet. Then rake the seeds lightly.....over seed it, dont be shy. Then you have to water it but make sure you dont just wash the seeds away. Ive done much bigger areas than yours and you can get good results, but its not just as case of sprinkling and hope. Make sure you get really good top soil.....shop around and tell the suppliers what youre doing and what they recommend.
  • ForeverAddicktedForeverAddickted
    TEL said:

    ForeverAddickted said:

    TEL said:

    If you use round up you will have to leave the ground for at least 6-8 weeks. Then rake off all the dead stuff. Then get at least 100mm of good quality top soil. The really hard part is finding a really good quality seed. Ive just used a Tall Fescue variety which in this unpredictable environment has done really well. The other option is to hire a rotavator then filter out the crap, roll it and top soil it.

    Have been looking around this morning and just been getting confused which is why I decided to come on here and ask... Don't really want to hire a rotavator... if I was to get at least 100mm of good top soil do I just rake it into the soil before seeding?
    Prepare the existing area get it as flat as possible and then put down your top soil. Seriously research the seed as most of the stuff you will buy over the counter at Garden centres is only good for patching. When you sow the seeds make sure the soil is damp but not wet. Then rake the seeds lightly.....over seed it, dont be shy. Then you have to water it but make sure you dont just wash the seeds away. Ive done much bigger areas than yours and you can get good results, but its not just as case of sprinkling and hope. Make sure you get really good top soil.....shop around and tell the suppliers what youre doing and what they recommend.
    Cheers for the advice... Do you have a particular brand of seed that you can recommend?
  • TELTEL
    Youre going to need 4 of those big bulk bags of soil for a 5m x 5m area
  • SwisdomSwisdom
    A couple of my neighbours have Astroturf and I think it looks bloody awful. Quite expensive too.

    A friend has one that is bright green - apparently it was cheaper. My guess is because nobody on earth wants it and they wanted to get shot of it.
  • T_C_ET_C_E
    Swisdom said:

    A couple of my neighbours have Astroturf and I think it looks bloody awful. Quite expensive too.

    A friend has one that is bright green - apparently it was cheaper. My guess is because nobody on earth wants it and they wanted to get shot of it.

    Ours was more for practical reasons, our decking is some 10' above ground level and the dogs breaking a leg slipping on wet decking was more of a concern than what it looks like.
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